I haven't seen the shelves at my local TRU change in 6 months, but when I call and ask, they already got all their exclusives in and sold through them. I've been checking the shelves regularly to have not missed them. She did tell me that they may all been called ahead and held. I never even saw the shelf tag for the Dark Pheonix pack. Something is up with that place.

I haven't seen the shelves at my local TRU change in 6 months, but when I call and ask, they already got all their exclusives in and sold through them. I've been checking the shelves regularly to have not missed them. She did tell me that they may all been called ahead and held. I never even saw the shelf tag for the Dark Pheonix pack. Something is up with that place.

Are there any local comic shops in the area?. I know the last comic shop in my area used to buy a shit ton of stuff from the local tru and jack up the prices. Like I seen the wave deadpool at tru one day and the next day the same exact box in the comic shop for almost 3x the tru price. I never realized it at first but when I did I wrote a tiny j on the back of a figure I knew they'd want and when I went the next day it was their price increased but still with my j on it.

Are there any local comic shops in the area?. I know the last comic shop in my area used to buy a shit ton of stuff from the local tru and jack up the prices. Like I seen the wave deadpool at tru one day and the next day the same exact box in the comic shop for almost 3x the tru price. I never realized it at first but when I did I wrote a tiny j on the back of a figure I knew they'd want and when I went the next day it was their price increased but still with my j on it.

The two big comic shops in town sell more old ToyBiz stuff than new stuff. It generally takes them a while to get in new stuff. One of them did rip me on the old Guardians wave, but I knew I was making a mistake at the time. I got impatient. The owners are good dudes, so I don't mind over paying. They have to make money to keep the doors open.

I did loot a stasher's hiding hole at Target yesterday. I looked up in the graphics promo in the Legends section, and someone had 3-5 figures stashed up on the rails. They were all D.C. figures, but I put them back on the pegs anyways.

The two big comic shops in town sell more old ToyBiz stuff than new stuff. It generally takes them a while to get in new stuff. One of them did rip me on the old Guardians wave, but I knew I was making a mistake at the time. I got impatient. The owners are good dudes, so I don't mind over paying. They have to make money to keep the doors open.

I did loot a stasher's hiding hole at Target yesterday. I looked up in the little graphs promo in the Legends section, and someone had 3-5 figures stashed up on the rails. They were all D.C. figures, but I put them back on the pegs anyways.

Look, just as long as companies manipulate the market (and market value) of their products by running limited quantities --- there'll always be a secondary re-seller market. Frankly, I don't like it anymore than the next guy. When companies manipulate the market value of a product line by limiting the supply, (supply and demand 101), it becomes an artificial way of creating value for a product and its brand. And it's especially ridiculous when the product and its line is subpar quality-wise (and it hurts me to say that cause I love ML wholeheartedly.) But when you consider the overall shoddy quality of ML when compared to other similarly priced lines in the $50-80 tier, it becomes quite ridiculous to limit the supply and make them "hard to get" when their collector value is so low, technically speaking.

But at the end of the day, like I alluded earlier, as long as companies artificially manipulate the supply-end, there will be unmet consumer demand, and thus an overpriced secondary market will inevitably exist. it is this way with everything. And the market value of a particular item is what people are willing to pay. So vote with your wallets. You have to be a consumer activist of sorts.

And finally, people should blame the companies instead. They should run continual re-issues, especially of popular figures. They should be capitalizing on the ridiculous re-seller market. And why do we care if a product is rare? If a figure is nice, it's nice, and I want it based on its own merit. I can care less how many other people may or may not have it. The fact that other people have it doesn't limit my enjoyment of a particular item.

But I digress. you can hardly blame a re seller. For instance, when you buy a house, and the market value goes up.. guess what? you sell it for more. It's called a free market. Don't like the price, don't buy it.

Look, just as long as companies manipulate the market (and market value) of their products by running limited quantities --- there'll always be a secondary re-seller market. Frankly, I don't like it anymore than the next guy. When companies manipulate the market value of a product line by limiting the supply, (supply and demand 101), it becomes an artificial way of creating value for a product and its brand. And it's especially ridiculous when the product and its line is subpar quality-wise (and it hurts me to say that cause I love ML wholeheartedly.) But when you consider the overall shoddy quality of ML when compared to other similarly priced lines in the $50-80 tier, it becomes quite ridiculous to limit the supply and make them "hard to get" when their collector value is so low, technically speaking.

But at the end of the day, like I alluded earlier, as long as companies artificially manipulate the supply-end, there will be unmet consumer demand, and thus an overpriced secondary market will inevitably exist. it is this way with everything. And the market value of a particular item is what people are willing to pay. So vote with your wallets. You have to be a consumer activist of sorts.

And finally, people should blame the companies instead. They should run continual re-issues, especially of popular figures. They should be capitalizing on the ridiculous re-seller market. And why do we care if a product is rare? If a figure is nice, it's nice, and I want it based on its own merit. I can care less how many other people may or may not have it. The fact that other people have it doesn't limit my enjoyment of a particular item.

But I digress. you can hardly blame a re seller. For instance, when you buy a house, and the market value goes up.. guess what? you sell it for more. It's called a free market. Don't like the price, don't buy it.

I couldn't agree more. Diamond Select has done a phenomenal job of doing this. We see what would have otherwise have happened with The Watcher figure in particular. Well said, but I still hate the scalpers.

For instance, when you buy a house, and the market value goes up.. guess what? you sell it for more. It's called a free market. Don't like the price, don't buy it.

I hear you, but that's not quite the same. A piece of property is an investment, and while YES you could invest long term with any collectible to have a potential return on your initial investment. ...
By definition itself scalping has to do with depleting quantities (hoarding) of an item/product thus making is scarce, creating an even greater demand so the seller can maximum profits from it.
People don't buy up all the houses/property to make is scarce.

It annoys me to no *&#^-ing end when a new product/figure has been released and we can't find it in any stores or online but it's ALLLLLL OVER ebay. Which means people's purchase of it was solely to profit off of it, thus making is scare and driving up those prices.

I hear you, but that's not quite the same. A piece of property is an investment, and while YES you could invest long term with any collectible to have a potential return on your initial investment. ...
By definition itself scalping has to do with depleting quantities (hoarding) of an item/product thus making is scarce, creating an even greater demand so the seller can maximum profits from it.
People don't buy up all the houses/property to make is scarce.

It annoys me to no *&#^-ing end when a new product/figure has been released and we can't find it in any stores or online but it's ALLLLLL OVER ebay. Which means people's purchase of it was solely to profit off of it, thus making is scare and driving up those prices.

I get the feeling that some figures never make it out to the shelves at all. I remember seeing listings for the TRU Exclusive Groot where the seller had one Groot figure in front of the photo that was being propped up by a stack of 6 or 8 other Groot figures. I'm glad I didn't pay some scalper $40 or $50 for it because they restocked them in time for the GOTG Vol. 2 Blu-Ray release.

In defense of comic shops that do that, in some places it's a matter of survival. At one time I was looking to open a toy shop. My area had lost 75% of its toy stores over the years and my town never had any options. When I was scouting rental prices, they were insane, upwards of five times my mortgage payment on a small house.

With the margins that you get going through a distributor, you have got to sell an incredible number of toys each month just to break even. On top of that, you have to sell enough to pay for a house to live in and food to eat. It was a very daunting prospect. I'd been selling out of my garage for awhile and it looked like I would never reach that level of volume at the rate I was going.

Then the Hasbro embargo came. If things were difficult before, then they were beyond impossible after. I would be solicited for stuff mere days before it hit stores but could not expect to take delivery for months. By then, all of the people willing to pay even retail had exited the market, leaving only those looking to pay _below_ wholesale. With free shipping.

What's perverse about that is that it really encourages scalping. Anybody that might've opened a distributor account runs the numbers and sees that they actually make out better if they luck into an early batch at retail. Back when Titans Return Octane and Blitzwing were new, I flipped a pair from Target for $50 each. If I had waited for Hasbro to deliver cases, I would still be struggling to get $25 months later.

Hasbro is not the only villain though. I was frequently shorted by Entertainment Earth on any number of lines. One of their favorite tricks was to list Mattel products as due next week or "hot off the truck," lock in preorders, and then revise the date three or more months out. I was in the habit of ordering Mattel as filler for major pushes - a show, Christmas, whatever - and that delay would put them past the point of having any value. When you cancel an order, they take a 15% restocking fee and I believe they do this bait and switch purposely to artificially boost their own margins.

Anyway, when I would do shows or have a decent month on eBay, it was always two types of items that saved me. One, the rare toy I actually got on time, usually by ordering from overseas. Two, a toy that I had sat on for years and forgotten about because I couldn't get retail out of it when it was new. Neither case was what I really signed up to do. If I had a shop with bills coming due each and every month, I would have no choice. Since I don't, I do, and I chose to quit.

I feel bad for "scalpers" because I imagine some of them are just broken people with broken dreams trying to get by the only way that they can. Collectors...not so much...because, ironically, if the market wasn't so tight-fisted, prices wouldn't be so high.

As long as people are desperate enough to pay scalpers their overpriced asking prices, they will continue to do so. Takes 2 to tango. I saw the Hydra 2 pack selling for $60 on ebay, freak that, just waited till I finally found 2 sets during the BOGO & get 40% the other one. Got my 2 sets for total of $59.

Went to my local store, no Hydra packs on the floor. I asked a manager why they show in inventory, but they never have them. He said they have people who shop their truck schedules. I took that to mean there are a shit ton of desperate scalpers around here. I also found a repack that I turned into customer service. It was pretty slick though. They took the heads out of the Civil War 3-pack and replaced with the heads out of the Nick Fury Onslaught figures. I’m betting they made money off the return too with how cheap it runs online.

I'm seriously considering applying to Wal Mart because whoever is in charge of stocking the toy section does not know how to. And how the hell did whatever piece of crap successfully return this? And I've seen similar repackings a bunch of times before.